Universal's Bloody Mary: Eyes that chill
Link here. October 15, 2008|By Dewayne Bevil, Sentinel Staff Writer Once again, Universal has created a monster. This time it's not a product of Dr. Frankenstein's lab, but rather an otherworldly icon for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios theme park. Behold Bloody Mary, whose duties include appearances on radio, TV, print and Web ads, spooking the theme park with a crazed voice and haunted house, and unnerving children and motorists from billboards dotting the interstate. To give Mary that powerful of a punch, Universal Orlando's creative team -- a core of three or four, which eventually grew to include dozens of artists, designers and technicians -- had to flesh out all sorts of details beyond her relatively thin urban legend: Say her name three times and she appears in the mirror. They had to decide what she looks like, how her voice sounds, how she interacts with other Horror Nights characters and even how her handwriting looks (increasingly disturbed, as seen on the event Web site). And yes, what's her motivation? "We take that which everybody knows and we build the whole part that everyone doesn't know," said Jim Timon, Universal Orlando's senior vice president for entertainment. "And then turn it around a bit: What happens when you get pulled into the mirror?" This brand-new Mary may be too intense for some onlookers. Complaints about the easy access that children have to the imagery on outdoor advertising and commercials led to online petitions asking Universal to tone it down. "We have no plans to make changes to our billboards, but we always reserve the right to makes changes that we feel keeps our advertising current, creative and effective," said Tom Schroder, spokesman for Universal Orlando Resort. Universal had nailed down its theme -- urban legends, fairy tales, myths and the like -- before selecting Mary as its icon in January. After months of brainstorming, Universal developed its backstory. Dr. Mary Agana is a psychiatrist who used extreme aversion therapy to cure folks of their fears, a technique common in her time, set as 1958 by Universal. Patients were instructed to call her name three times if the treatments became too intense. One session goes horribly wrong, and she's pulled through a two-way mirror and dies. Her presence -- and creepy voice -- lives on at Universal. "We wanted a unique tonality to her. What does the inside of a mirror sound like?" said Michael Roddy, Universal manager of show development. "It's a combination of underwater sounds, some echo chambers, and we hired three very talented actresses to combin''e three different elements of her voice so that there's a similarity to it, but also something supernatural about it."'' The mirror in the tale and the advertising have significance, said Addie Leibin, a licensed mental health counselor in Winter Park. "At least once a day, everybody looks in a mirror," she said. And if you're thinking about Bloody Mary and looking in your hallway mirror, "chances are it could cause a lot of anxiety." For Roddy, Mary's all-white eyes have it. "Y''ou can't connect with her because she doesn't have eyes. That is the connection people look for immediately''," he said. "So now forcing people to look up at something and it's looking back at us and there's no way to relate to it. I think that's really effective." Consumers make a connection between Mary and Medusa who, in Greek mythology, turned folks into stone if they looked into her eyes. "Even before they know or hear a Bloody Mary story, they hear that story from Greek mythology, and it etches it into their minds and it stays with them," said Leonard Norman Primiano, chair of the department of religious studies at Cabrini College in Radnor, Pa. Fear of Bloody Mary runs deep, added Primiano, who's also a folklorist with an interest in Halloween. "It's a ghost which they cannot control," he said. "That lack of control is frightening and disordering to people." Timon agreed. "It's a trace memory. It's reminding you of something you'd rather not remember," he said. "I'm thinking that's where we're getting them is on a sub-psychological level -- which is really over-analyzing this." Category:Halloween Horror Nights article Category:Halloween Horror Nights: Reflections of Fear